Improvement in illuminating roofing-plates



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEroE.

THEODORE HYATT AND JACOB JACOBS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNORS TO HYATT BROTHERS, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN ILLUMINATING ROOFING-PLATES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. l 54,048, dated August 1I, 1874; application led July 24, 1874.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that we, THEoDoRE HYATT and JACOB JACOBS, of New York, in the county` of New York and in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Illuminating Roofing-Tiles; and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings making a part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective View of a blank for a glass-holder, as stamped from a sheet of metal. Fig. 2 is a like view of a glass-holder completed and ready for insertion within a tile. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the upper side of a tile, having its light-openings surrounded by said glass-holders. Fig. 4 is a like view-of the lower side of the same, and Fig. 5 is a crosssection of said tile upon a line passing through the center of a row of light-openings.

Letters of like name and kind refer to like parts in each of the figures.

The design of our invention is to increase the strength and durability of illuminating sheet-metal roofing-tiles, and to decrease the cost of their construction; to which end it consists, as a new article of manufacture, in an illuminating sheet-metal rooting-tile in which the glass-holders are secured in place by causing the lower edge of the same to embrace the edge of the light-opening and bear upon the upper and lower faces of said plate, in the manner and for the purpose hereinafter specified.

In the annexed drawings, A represents a roofing-tile constructed of or from sheet metal, and provided, at suitable intervals, with light-openings B and B, all in the usual manner. Each light-opening B is surrounded by a sheet-metal curb, C, which is formed by iirst cutting a circular blank from a sheet and turning its edges downward, as seen in Fig. l; after which said blank is placed within a suitable die, its iianged edge c upward, the central portion cut out, and the edge of such opening turned downward, as shown in Fig. 2, said inner flange c having such external dimensions as to cause it to closely fill said opening B.

As constructed, it will be seen that, at the lower edge of the iiange c, the curb C eX- tends horizontally inward, so as to form a seat, c", for and upon which a lens, D, can rest. The curb C is now placed within an opening, B, and, by means of a die, the portion of its flange c which projects through said opening is turned outward and downward, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, and closely coniines said curb in place. The tile, with its Curbed light-openings, is now immersed in a zinc bath and thoroughly galvanized, after which its lenses D and D are secured in position in the usual manner.

Although the tile shown is plain, it can be constructed with any form of corrugations desired; in which event, as it will be necessary that the curbs should conform to the surface of the same, them form of the die will require to be changed.

The advantages obtained by this construction of a roofing-tile are, first, the lensholders are strongerA and more durable than those constructed in the usual manner; seeond, the union between the lensholders and roofing-plate possesses far more stre..` th and durability than could be obtained by other means; and, further, at such point of union a perfect and invariably tight joint is produced; third, by causing the lens-holderto embrace both sides of the tile, the rigidity of the latter is largely increased; fourth, while possessing the advantages named, a tile constructed in this manner can be furnished at as low a cost as those heretofore used.

Having thus fully set forth the nature and merits of our invention, what we c laim is- As a new article of manufacture, an 'illuminating sheet-metal roofing-tile in which the lensholder is secured in place by causing the lower anged edge of the same to embrace the edge of the light-opening and bear upon the upper and lower faces of said tile, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that we claim the foregoing we have hereunto set our hands this 23d day of July, 1874.

THEODORE HYATT. JACOB JACOBS.

Witnesses AMBEosE MoNELL, EDGAR l?. STARR. 

